People with high-functioning autism have the ability to read, write, and handle basic skills; however, they have difficulties with social interaction and communication.

High-functioning autism refers to autism spectrum disorder where people can read, write, and handle basic skills, such as eating and getting dressed.

• However, they still have difficulties with social interaction and communication.
• They are slow to take social cues and face challenges to make friends.

Some communication challenges that a person with high-functioning autism may face include:

• Participating in conversation is difficult
• Trouble connecting with others’ thoughts or feelings
• Difficulty reading others’ body language and facial expressions well, for example, the person might be unable to comprehend if a person is happy or sad
• Unable to understand sarcastic or emotive undertones
• Usage of flat, monotone or robotic pattern of speaking that fails to communicate their thoughts
• Inventing one’s own descriptive words and phrases
• Failing to understand figures of speech and turns of phrase (such as “the early bird catches the worm,” or “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”)
• Not being comfortable looking into someone’s eyes while talking to them
• Using the same tone or speaking patterns at home, with friends, or at the workplace
• Like to talk about one or two favorite topics
• Difficulty building and maintaining close friendships

Some emotional and behavioral difficulties faced by people with high-functioning autism include:

• Trouble regulating their emotions and responses to them
• Outbursts or meltdowns following a simple routine or expectation change
• Responding with an emotional meltdown to an unexpected event
• Getting upset with rearrangements and shifting
• Following rigid routine schedules and daily patterns that need to be maintained at any cost
• Having repetitive behaviors and rituals
• Making noises in places where pin drop silence is expected

Food behaviors exhibited by people with autism include:

• Fussy eating food that falls into the same food groups, such as sweet, salty, or bitter
• Accepting or rejecting foods based on texture, smell, color, or temperature
• Dipping or covering all food in sauce
• Stuffing food in the mouth due to the lack of sensory sensitivity
• Biting inner lips and cheeks while seeing foods they dislike
• Only eating food presented in the same manner each time

Other signs of high-functioning autism include:

• Being deeply knowledgeable about a few specific areas of interest (such as a historical period, book series, film, industry, hobby, or field of study)
• Being smart in one or two challenging academic subject areas but have great difficulty doing well in others
• Experiencing hypersensitivity or impaired sensitivity to sensory input (such as pain, sound, touch, or smell)
• Being clumsy and having difficulty with coordination
• Prefer to play and work with themselves rather than with others
• Being perceived as eccentric or an academic

Medically Reviewed on 1/4/2022

References